The Software Pilots Manifesto
AI changed who can build software. It did not change what can go wrong.
What's Changed
- AI agents now generate working software from plain English.
- Hundreds of millions of domain experts can finally build solutions to problems only they understand.
- The tool doing the building is probabilistic: confident, inconsistent, and frequently wrong.
The Problem
- Non-technical creators are shipping software they cannot evaluate, secure, or maintain.
- Professional engineers have vital skills but no defined role in a world where machines write most of the code.
- When AI-generated software causes harm, nobody is clearly accountable.
The Solution
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Engineers must evolve into software pilots: skilled practitioners who oversee, intervene, and take responsibility.
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Employers must hire for judgment, specification, and verification — not just coding ability.
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Education must teach pilotry as a discipline: the machine beneath, the probabilistic machine above, and the human accountable for both.
The course is coming.
A foundation course in software pilotry for domain professionals, engineers evolving their practice, and employers building the teams of the future.
Get notifiedOriginated by Julian Harris, Great Creations London Ltd